Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-01-31
ladies Gal4mn.
IN A SHIRT FACTORY

IN SHIRT FACTORY
More than twenty-five million peonla in
the United States wear shirts. They are
not all of the kind known among the sol
| diers of the late war as s@bited shirts vet
they are of some style or quality of the
garment to which the word shirt can
be applied.
The time is not long gone by when the
man who wanted pair of shirts went TO
a dry goods store, purchased six yards of
cotton cloth, half a yard of linen, a dozen
buttons, a roll of tape, and two spooIs of
thread. Then he took this material home
to his wife-if he was fortunate enouph
to have one-or to some other woman.
who cut and made them for him; she be-
| ing a deft seamstress who could make a
shirt in day"
Now at any store where mems furnish
| ing goods are kept, a good shirt, ready
made, can be bought for but little more
than what yard of cloth cost during the
| civil war.
| Where are all these shirts made?
They are not all manufactured in any
one place; but if you will come to Leo
minister, Mass, will take you where you
can hear 1.-The song of shirt, the
sad and touching ditty sung by Hood, but
a blithe and cheerful song, ratified off by
more than two hundred sewing machines
one-third of them real Singers over
each one of which presides neat and til
dily-dressed lady, most of them young
and all of them cheerful and happy in the
consciousness of earning from a dollar to
dollar and fifty cents day.
First we will 90 to the basement. Here
in a pleasant room are two tables, each
fOrty-tWo feet in length and a little more
than yard in width. They are made of
pine blocks a few inches square, glued to-
gether, but set upright, so that the sur
face of the table is made of the end of the
blocks. Here the shirts are cut-not with
shears, but with knives. Our grand
mothers were satisfied to cut one, or at
the most two shirts at time. What
would they have thought could they have
cut eight dozen at once? Yet here it is
done. Ninety-siX thicknesses of cloth,
one yard wide and fourteen yards in
length, are laid smoothly upon the table.
On this patterns made of heavy paper
board, with metallic edges, are placed
On this heavy leaden weight is set, to
press the layers of cloth firmly together.
The operator, armed with pointed knife,
the edge sharpened to the keenness of a
razor, cuts rapidly around the edge of the
pattern, and through the ninety-siX thick
nesses of cloth, thus cutting eight dozen
shirts at a time. From four to five thou
sand yards of cloth are cut up in this room
daily.
Every shirt consists of thirty-three diff
ferent pieces, and each piece is marked
with the style and number of the shirt be-
fore leaving the cutting room.
Let US now ascend to one of the three
sewing-rooms above. Here are seventy
two machines, including four that make
button-hOles, all running at a speed that
would astOnish one not accustomed to
seeing sewing done by steam power. Each
of the seventy-twO girls" has her special
work to do, and she does nothing else,
though in some cases three or four are
doing the same kind of work. One hens
them, another sews on the back facings,
another the front facings, one gathers the
back for the yoke, one sews the parts of
the yoke together, one marks the bosom,
another sews it on; and thus we might
describe all the processes from beginning
to end.
Here in the middle of the room sits one
girl" scissors in hand trimming them,
even before sewing on the neck band.
Noticing how deftly she handled the
shears, l asked, How many can you trim
in a day?" Cone hundred dozen" was
her reply. This would be two minute
for ten hours. Her average daily work,
however, is probably less than this, as
eighty dozen shirts per day is about the
product of this room.
From the three sewing-rooms-the 9th
er two are precisely like this one-the
shirts are taken to the inspectors room.
Here every shirt is carefully examined, all
tions in the work are remedied and then
it is stamped with a mark Indicating its
size, and giving the name of the manu-
facturers, the ''Wachusett Shirt Co."
They are then folded, tied in bundles of
six each, the bundles marked and packed
for shipping in cases averaging forty
five dozen in each.
Up to this point every shirt has passed
through thirty-two different hands. A
few of the best quality are Numbered, and |
packed in paper boxes containing six |
each. These pass through the hands of |
several persons more.
The ''Wachusett Shirt Company is only |
one-though the largest-of three similar |
establishments in town. 1t is now turn
ing out upward of fourteen hundred doz- |
en-, or about seventeen thousand shirts |
every week; or at the rate of about eight |
hundred and eighty thousand per year |
This number, large as it may seem, would |
furnish only about one in thirty of the |
shirt wearers in our country with one |
shirt per annum. As they manufacture |
fifteen different styles in thirteen sizes, it |
would seem that all might be suited.
This one company has increased its
production three-foId within eighteen |
months. They now employ two hundred |
and sixty hands, but are erecting a new
brick factory, which, when completed-l
next spring, viii enable them to give en-
ployment to from seven to eight hundred |
persons
The shirt factories of Leominster now
furnish work for about five hundred
girls" and when the new one is COM
pleted, VIII employ twice that number